HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/html
Pubdate: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 Source: Sacramento Bee (CA) Page: 2B Copyright: 2009 The Sacramento Bee Contact: http://www.sacbee.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376 Author: Stan Oklobdzija Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) POT GROWER WINS RULING IN BUTTE COUNTY LEGAL FIGHT A California Court of Appeal handed down a ruling Wednesday in favor of a Butte County man ordered to destroy several marijuana plants he grew on his property as part of a medical marijuana collective to which he belonged. The 3rd District Court of Appeal denied a writ of mandate petition filed by Butte County to strike down an earlier trial court's ruling in the case of David Williams, 56, who belonged to a seven-member collective of medical marijuana users who contributed money and labor to grow the plants they used for treatment, according to the ruling. Williams was ordered by a Butte County sheriff's deputy in September 2005 to destroy 29 of the 42 marijuana plants the collective grew on Williams' Paradise property. Williams complied, but later took the county to court, arguing his right to due process and against unreasonable search and seizure were violated because the deputy did not have a search warrant and the cultivation of the plant was permissible under Proposition 215, which legalized marijuana for medicinal use. The county argued that Williams should have allowed himself to be arrested by the deputy and fought the ruling in criminal court. It also argued that the protections of Proposition 215 do not allow for collective growth of marijuana. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom